Barn on Fire Residency Welcomes Truth Future Bachman's SKYWARD: An Endling Elegy

This past summer, New York Theatre Barn and Fire Island Pines Arts Project, in association with Dalip Girdhar + Paul Austin (The P. Austin Foundation), joined forces for the 2nd annual season of Barn on Fire. Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell serves as a mentor to the Fire Island Pines residency which included three new musicals The Bubble, Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical, and King of Pangaea.

This season, Barn on Fire is expanding out past the summer residencies to support the development of Truth Future Bachman’s Skyward: An Endling Elegy. Following a workshop at Vassar's Powerhouse Theatre, Barn on Fire has created a week-long opportunity this fall for Truth and their creative team to take up space with actors to collaborate on the new musical in a supportive, creative, and tranquil atmosphere. Directed by Zhailon Levingston (Broadway’s youngest black director in history, Chicken and Biscuits), Skyward is the next evolution of the queer/trans superhero saga Shapeshifters. 

Bachman's ongoing Shapeshifters saga reimagines the othering of queerness as a gift, empowering their diverse, trans-human cast's epic adventures. After birdwatcher Aria sights a flock of extinct animals within a great migration, the bird's ghostly songs awaken an avian adaptation that transforms her life forever. The residency also includes music director Saul Nache (Hip Hop Cinderella), and actors Ebonée Noel (CBS’ FBI), Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Garnet Williams, and Zia.

Barn on Fire is supported in part by the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals, a program of National Alliance for Musical Theatre - www.namt.org. The residency is made possible with generous support from Dalip Girdhar + Paul Austin (The P. Austin Foundation), Straighten Your Crown Productions, Henry Robin & Bob McGarity, John Krawchuk & Vinnie Petrarca, Denise Lucy & Francoise Lepage, Isaac Namdar & Andrew Mitchell-Namdar, Carlos de la Puente & Simeon Kline, Gary Clinton & Don Millinger, Richard Winger, and Matthew Woolf. Barn on Fire previously supported the musicals Sueños: Our American Musical, Buried, Little Miss Perfect, and How to You: A Musical Guide to Black Boyhood.